Jesus First Spirituality

Thanks be to God, the Lord has been leading me to understand what it means to have a Jesus-first spirituality without becoming a Protestant!

I had to first shed the idea that the Sunday church experience is supposed to somehow "carry" us through the week.  No, we need to put forth our own effort throughout the week.  Sunday ought to be a time of renewal and recharging for the week, but it does not excuse us from working out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12-13).

Divine Liturgy is the communal/corporate aspect of our spirituality and faith.  It is not the be all and end all.  There must be prayer rules and fasting rules in place.  There must be regular confession and Bible reading.  There must be regular silent meditation either in nature or Eucharistic adoration (or both).  

We do need to be intentional about who our friends are, and even more who our children's friends are.  But we don't want to become so isolationist that our kids don't know how to be friends with people who are different from them.  There needs to be a balance.  

The homeschooling co-op at the Orthodox church is a good local source of well behaved Christian friends for our kids (and me).  But we do need to still make an effort to find specifically Catholic friends for us.

Perhaps the monthly children's Mass and time fellowshipping afterwards may be a good source of Catholic friends.  It may also be a good source of small groups that meet during the week.